English Translations of Cubans Writing From the Island
Cuba Today, El Vedado, Havana, (PD): Bit by bit some of the early activists who were able to cross the sea are returning; they were guests or sponsored by organizations or individuals the “outside world.” I say some, because you must remember that under their inalienable right, there are friends who took the opportunity to … Continue reading “Citizen Diplomacy / Julio Antonio Aleaga Pesant”
We are living in a world where, dangerously, what’s important for the work of many is just to show results. Perhaps for that reason, for nostalgia, convenience, desire, hope, belief, deception or passion; we make the mistake of looking to Havana and distorting the reality, imagining the Cuban government as a bankrupt controlling consortium. Sorry, … Continue reading “Raul Prepares His Retirement / Juan Juan Almeida”
It all started very early, at the beginning of the seventies. Soon the Maximum figures of the triumph of the ’fifty-nine revolution, realized that they if they wanted to install themselves in power, firmly and indefinitely, they are going to have to take over the mass media of communication, in the then flat press, radio … Continue reading “The Tagline, Putative Mother of Censorship / Rebeca Monzo”
Photo taken by “The Voice of the Sandinismo” I am not going to refer to the song by Mexican Jose Alfredo Jimenez but to the spirit, the intention that gravitates like smog over the Cuban archipelago and part of the world. Given the person that it concerns, we should be accustomed to that kind of … Continue reading “The Military King / Rosa Maria Rodriguez”
Introduction by Tania Quintero On December 10, 2010, without resources, publicity, or fanfare, attorney and freelance journalist Laritza Diversent founded a modest office in her home to provide free, independent advice to Cubans and foreigners on national and international legal issues and human rights. She established the Cubalex Legal Information Center. Over time she was … Continue reading “Laritza Diversent Reports from Geneva / Laritza Diversent”
The opponent Madelín Lázara Caraballo, detained for nine months in a prison for HIV-AIDS sufferers, in San Jose de las Lajas, will be tried Wednesday at the Old Havana municipal court. She is accused of the crimes of “public disorder, Article 200.1.2, contempt, 144.1, incitement to crime, 202.1.3, and resistance, 143.1, of the Penal Code, … Continue reading “They Are Prosecuting an Activist Against Evictions in Old Havana / Luis Felipe Rojas”
Wendy, my good little dog Wendy, the family dog, has always been pampered by my youngest son and me. My first born and husband haven’t been as engaged, but lately she’s been sick and since them everyone has equally lavished expressions of affection. Like any dog, she is greedy and comes up to beg when … Continue reading “Eating the Yankee / Rosa Maria Rodriguez”
On the street where I live, a couple of months ago, the last tree that gave shade fell at the hands of a neighbor. It has been attacked on several occasions by this character. On one occasion, the girth of the trunk was split by a circle made around it, with the aim of keeping … Continue reading “International Arbor Day / Rebeca Monzo”
Photo: Peter Deel It is good that the President, although not part of his core responsibilities and somewhat belatedly, has spoken publicly about the loss of ethical values and disrespect for morality, problems about which many citizens had been warning, without being heard, for many years. It is also good to have noted the deterioration … Continue reading “Citizen Culture and Civics / Fernando Damaso”
From Sampsonia Way Magazine. Since the end of the 1980s, Ángel Santiesteban has been known as one of the most brilliant writers of his generation. In this position he touches upon subjects that are pretty uncomfortable for Cuban political culture: The island’s military interference in Angola and Ethiopia, the genocide of people fleeing towards liberty … Continue reading “The Son that Nobody Wanted / Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo”
To visit the site in Warsaw of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights on the afternoon of the historic June 4, anniversary of those first elections with which Poles inaugurated their new period of democracy; to be received there with so much emotion by its President Danuta Przywara, and to hear her from her own … Continue reading “The Summing up of the Helsinki Foundation / Mario Lleonart”
The first two deacons of the Old Mission Church, Our Lady of Joy, in Cuba, were ordained by Monsignor Ricardo Santiago Medina Salabarría, Primate Bishop of this church in Cuba, at eight o’clock on the night of the Wednesday nineteenth of June of two thousand thirteen, in the Chapel (private) of “Immaculate Mary” of the … Continue reading “Leandro Cesar Mastrapa Igarza and Alexis Zayas Guillen were Ordained as Deacons/ Katia Sonia”
Published in the second edition of Cuadernos de Pensamiento Plural, April 2013. People cannot live without history. On the 160th anniversary of the birth José Martí, “the crowning figure of Cuban political thought,” his ideas, instead of being used to solve the serious social problems that afflict Cuban society, continue to be manipulated in order to validate … Continue reading “The Philosophy of Marti versus the Totalitarian Model”
Literature and Justice The award-winning writer Angel Santiesteban is imprisoned unjustly for his confrontational attitude to the Castro regime. On Wednesday, February 27, at the headquarters of the Estado de Sats project there was a farewell to Angel Santiesteban Prats, the award-winning writer. The next morning, he will present himself to serve the prison sentence … Continue reading “The Santiesteban Case: A Crude Judicial Hoax / Angel Santiesteban”
Call for the release of the blogger Angel Santiesteban-Prats, imprisoned two months ago. Reporters Without Borders calls on the Cuban authorities to release Ángel Santiesteban-Prats, writer and author of the blog The Children Nobody Wanted, who was imprisoned on February 28, 2013, as soon as possible. The prisoner, currently on hunger strike, was placed in … Continue reading “URGENT: Reporters Without Borders Ask for Immediate Release of Angel Santiesteban”
